Coutts Trio defendant: Trudeau's illegal Emergencies Act invocation may undermine Coutts Four trial

Marco Van Huigenbos, one of the Coutts Trio defendants, considered a connection between a federal court's rejection of the legitimacy of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's invocation of the Emergencies Act in 2022 and the ongoing trial of Chris Carbert and Anthony Olienick in Lethbridge, AB, on Friday.

Friday's preliminary proceedings for the trial of Carbert and Olienick – the two remaining defendants of the Coutts Four – remains under a publication ban set to expire when the jury is selected.

Carbert and Olienick are being charged with conspiring to murder, specifically targeting RCMP officers. They are also charged with weapons offences and mischief.

The charges against the two relate to their involvement with the Coutts protest and blockade of 2022, a demonstration linked to the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa, ON, via shared opposition to government edicts, orders, and mandates marketed as "public health" measures in response to COVID-19.

Van Huiengos – alongside George Janzen and Alex Van Herk, dubbing themselves the Coutts Trio – is being charged with mischief over $5,000 for his involvement in the Coutts blockade and protest.

In January, Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley determined that Trudeau's invocation of the Emergencies Act, to further empower law enforcement to end the aforementioned protests, was unlawful and violative of constitutional rights.

Van Huigenbos speculated that Mosley's rejection of the federal government's rationale for invoking the Emergencies Act may undermine the Crown's arguments in the trial of Carbert and Olienick.

The Coutts protest slowed – and at some points completely blocked – traffic across the Canada-U.S. border at the Coutts-Sweetgrass border crossing linking Alberta and Montana. It preceded Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's invocation of the Emergencies Act, to broaden powers of law enforcement to suppress the two demonstrations.

Chris Lysak and Jerry Morin, the two other men of the Coutts Four, accepted plea deals to lesser charges in February after initially being charged with involvement in the alleged conspiracy to commit murder alongside Carbert and Olienick.

Dozens of Carbert's and Olienick's supporters have been visiting the Lethbridge Court House and attending proceedings. Several of them told Rebel News that part of their affinity for the defendants lies in shared opposition to coercive government mandates built upon a pretext of "public health".